The Oakland Raiders have advanced to 5-6 on the season and are only one game outside of first place in the AFC West after defeating the Denver Broncos on Sunday. As always, Monday morning is when I write out some quick thoughts and impressions from the game. These are comments and thoughts that I feel are noteworthy but not necessarily important enough to have an entire piece written about them.
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I guess we have to start by talking about the fight. I don’t feel strongly one way or another about it, to be honest. I think the Michael Crabtree and Aqib Talib rivalry has been boiling up forever and this was bound to happen. And while the Raiders had two player ejected because of it, I actually feel like it was a wake up call for the team who responded with fire the rest of the game.
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Shout out to the Niners for releasing NoVarro Bowman who recorded the first interception of the year for the Raiders and once again led the team in tackles. Though he can still be a bit of a liability in the passing game, it’s clear he’s a major upgrade for Oakland both on and off of the field.
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The Raiders offense is still starting off games very slowly. Their first four drives consisted of three punts and a fumble. Luckily for Oakland, the Denver defense is highly inept and their inability to move the ball allowed Oakland to stay in the game despite getting nothing from the offense early on.
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For the first time all season, the Raiders really leaned on Marshawn Lynch and fed him the ball consistently throughout the game. His YPC was not very good at 2.6 but if you watched the game, you know he had a major impact. Lynch was hit behind the line of scrimmage a number of times, but when he had holes, he hit them hard and hit defenders even harder. Through 26 carries, Lynch wore down the Denver defense and helped Oakland establish long, time consuming drives.
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So time consuming that the Raiders had the ball for almost 12 more minutes than the Broncos did. That’s a huge stat to keep in mind when thinking about how Oakland got the win.
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In general, the Raiders offense did another Jekyll and Hyde performance. One minute they are pushing the ball deep to Johnny Holton for a big game, the next they are checking down on third and long. It was better than what we’ve seen for much of this season but still isn’t where you’d like it to be.
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John Pagano is clearly having an impact on the Raiders defense and for the better. How much better isn’t really known yet since his first test came against a very bad offense.
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In fact, Bruce Irvin may be upset about Norton’s firing, but he had his best day of the year on Sunday with Pagano calling the plays. Irvin finished the day with two sacks, three tackles for a loss, two quarterback hits and a forced fumble.
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Though the Raiders came out strong and developed a three touchdown lead, they were unable to put the game away and as a result, Denver still had a chance right up until the two minute warning.
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